Hotels and high-end retailers in Dubai feel positive that they can ride out the Russian tour operator crisis and possibly even benefit from it. Rotana, which operates 15 hotels in the emirate and has a global sales office in Russia, is hopeful that the decline in Russian tourists because of the closure of some leading tour operators in the country would be offset by more tourists from the neighbouring Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), The National reported. Rotana said that it had witnessed an increase in the number of travellers from Russia this year compared with last year. The operator also believes that the fall in tourists because of the closure of five travel agencies – including IntAer, Labirint and Neva, because of declining demand on the back of a weakening rouble and the crisis in Ukraine – is transitional and will eventually pick up.